Vincent S. Smith with Dave Roberts, Mauro Gonzalez, & Simon Rycroft Scratchpads - a space for your data on the web

The problem Technical ability of these communities is limited - Solutions must be easy to use Many data providers - Each with their own user community Information heterogeneous - Often specific to each community Resource are limited - Solutions must scale to different communities How to manage, share & integrate digital information…

The goal What do you want to achieve with your digital information… Managing: somewhere to… - Store your data - Structure to your data (helps integration) - Customized to your data and needs Sharing: demonstrates your value because… - Makes you visible - Allows others to use your data - Facilitates collaboration Integrating: mixing data adds value because… - Provides broader context for your specialized work - Facilitates queries - Many levels of integration with different costs & benefits …different users have different priorities

The solution No one solution but… use the web! Generalized Content Management Systems (CMS) - Easy to set up and use (no expert help) - Quick to populate with your data (you can do this) - Low level data integration - most content unstructured Natural Language Processing (NLP) - You dont use this - we do - Makes digital content machine readable to facilitate integration - Rather experimental for biosystematic data Taxonomic Content Management Systems (TCMS) - (Very) hard to set up and use (need expert help) - (Very) difficult to populate (need expert help) - Facilitates high levels of data integration

The solution No one solution but… use the web! Generalized Content Management Systems (CMS) - Easy to set up and use (no expert help) - Quick to populate with your data (you can do this) - Low level data integration - most content unstructured Natural Language Processing (NLP) - You dont use this - we do - Makes digital content machine readable to facilitate integration - Rather experimental for biosystematic data Taxonomic Content Management Systems (TCMS) - (Very) hard to set up and use (need expert help) - (Very) difficult to populate (need expert help) - Facilitates high levels of data integration

What is a Content Management System? Like online systems for booking travel tickets - but more fun!

What is a Content Management System? More like mySpace, or Wikipedia or flickr - but for taxonomists Drupal CMS

What is a Content Management System? More like mySpace, or Wikipedia or flickr - but for taxonomists Drupal CMS Complex Database mounted on the web

What is a Content Management System? More like mySpace, or Wikipedia or flickr - but for taxonomists Drupal CMS Complex Database mounted on the web Customize look and functionality

What is a Content Management System? More like mySpace, or Wikipedia or flickr - but for taxonomists Added taxonomic tools (modules) Creating templates (Scratchpads) for you & your community to mount your digital information on the web

Scratchpad screenshots Lice Flies Fungus Gnats African Dung Beetles

Creating your Scratchpad How to apply for, customize and use a Scratchpad 1. Fill out an electronic registration 4. Book an initial appointment with Simon 3. Wait for your messages 2.Sign the terms & conditions form …it is that simple! 5. You and your collaborators add content

Sign-Up process Web form / Choose domain / T & C / Wait for

HTML Import Import content from an existing site

Bibliography tool Import content from endnote or similar

Bibliography tool Community edit references & serve OAI metadata

Specimen Image database (SID) Image upload & annotation

Online revisions Basic web revisions of taxa

Online gazetteer Checklist of African Dung beetles by country

Logging & Services ClustrMaps

RSS feeds uBio taxon feeds

Roles Categories of user

Modules Scratchpad functionality

Useful links Scratchpads - Info: - Signup: - Help: EDIT - Workpackage 6: - Workpackage 5: - EDIT: Me: Where to find more information…